76 XL250 "Cafuro" - DONE WITH PICTURES!

Hi All, Its my first build! Love cafe racers but thought I'd try something a little different, so I'm starting with a 76 Honda XL250. Partially because I needed a bike small enough to get down the stairs into my cellar shop! I plan to do a cafe + enduro mashup thing (a "cafuro?"). I suppose that's close to a street tracker but I have a few ideas I haven't seen, so what the heck. Here is the bike, bought off Craigslist, actually had to pay a full $500 for a running and titled one, I was surprised it was that much but still people love 'em here in the soggy Northwest. (funny I think another local Jake73 is building a brat tracker from one, must be a seattle thing!)

IMG_1531 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

The aformentioned stairs:

IMG_1798 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

the bike in the basement:

IMG_1802 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

I won't bore you with a lot of teardown pics and stories of how crusty she was, but this is one I had to show. Thats not grease, its melted plastic/glue from some incorrect pipe repair wrap the previous owner used. Its sticky like tar and resistant to most solvents, took forever to get off!

DSC07297 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

I'll be posting lots in the next weeks to bring you up to where I am now, the bike is to the frame and I'm fabricating parts and polishing, etc. Thanks for looking!

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

I'm local and the most informative and helpful pain in the ass you'll ever meet .

~kop

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

This is my rough photoshop version of where I'd like to go with it, yes I know the correct colors for the HRC logo are red and blue, but I already own an 84 Interceptor 500, I don't need TWO red, White & Blue Hondas! So I'm thinking I'll stick with red/white/black. I may not put that logo on there, but I love the old skool 70's style of it!


IMG_2219 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr
I'll keep you interested with the weirdest of my weird ideas: Flat handlebars! I'm lucky enough to work where they have a waterjet cutter and I had the engineer program the shape from my Illustrator file (Did I mention I'm a graphic designer?) and they cut them from aluminum stock. Practical? Hell no! Weird? Heck yeah! I'm basically treating this build as a cheapo bike I can try ideas on, almost like a sketch, just having fun with it. Please hold all "how will the throttle work?, where will the levers go?" type questions until the end of class - all will be revealed I promise


IMG_2224 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr


IMG_2225 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

I like the idea. Surprisingly to some, old dual/sport bikes make great cafe racers. Just ask Roland Sands! Lower the front end, put on a smaller front wheel, do a little body work, et voila! I'm, for one, going to definitely be following this thread.

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

This should be interesting. Keep us posted! I like the PS concept as well.

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Here is the seat and cowl mockup. Easy enough in cardboard and to cut from flat steel, but I have no skills with welding and metal shaping. Asked a metal sculptor friend if she could do it but not interested. Really just tricky rounding where the sides join the top. So I guess I'll say screw it and have a hard edge, i can get my buddy Tod to weld the joins. That's Tod Blubaugh from Twinline and We Are Winning, he's the bastard that casually said "You know you could get a bike in your basement" and started this whole dang thing in my head! I'd love nothing more than to go hang with the awesome crew at Twinline and do this build there, but did I mention I have a wife and 2 year old at home? By the time my day wraps its 9pm and I'm lucky to get 90 minutes in the basement once or twice a week. thats why this project has gone so far into spring - oh well its moving slow but still moving ;D

IMG_2399 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr


IMG_2400 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Here is my handlebar mounting block. I had the guys in our machine shop CNC it. The wedge is designed to take the fork angle out of the stock mounts so the bars will sit flat. they could drill the holes but not tap the threads on our CNC. So I tapped the threads by hand, I haven't done that since highschool metal shop back in the 80s! Pretty sure I messed up on #1 I had the tap a bit crooked, but got it down by the other 3. Got to buy our shop guys some beers!


IMG_2571 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Had Eric from our shop weld on the tabs for mounting my cowl and tail light, then ground off a few more things from the frame. Thats the last stuff for the frame now its off to the powdercoater! I'm really only powdercoating it because it would be crazy hard to clean for paint. Its amazing the amount of nooks and crannies these simple frames have. The stripping is included in the powdercoat and its only like $150 bucks, thats a no-brainer for me


IMG_2583 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr


IMG_2584 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

I got my parts for the seat and cowl cut on the waterjet. I actually went and watched this time its pretty cool. 20,000 PSI water and also garnet grit cut almost anything, steel, marble, etc. Id didn't realize the garnet is not recycled so it costs $$ every time to run this - ooops, sorry. I'll spend the time on the bandsaw or plasma cutter next time. Now I need to hit up another friend to help me bend the parts and then another to weld 'em. Hope I have friends left after this! Better start learning to do more myself


IMG_2619 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

the garnet grit

IMG_2622 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

the cutting program running on the controller


IMG_2624 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

took about 5 minutes to cut the 3 parts

IMG_2625 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

the back of my desk is starting to look like a very disorganized parts warehouse!

IMG_2629 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Thanks Rev! I followed your Minumus build and appreciated another wrencher with unconventional ideas and an appreciation for an XL. I don't think my build quality will be anywhere close to yours though!

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Thing's gonna look awesome. So if I send a pack of beers and a few bucks will they cut stuff for me too!? haha

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Yeah! the bars are built! I wanted to do weld-on levers, but after the stock perch material wouldn't weld, I had to buy some made from forged aluminum. Another 60 bucks in the project, but those MSR levers do look sweet. Adds some ATV/race look with the anodized adjusters. Definitely a breathless moment when I took the bandsaw to the brand-new perches, but looks like my idea worked - I'm super-stoked to have these outta my head and much closer to reality!


IMG_2633 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

here is a closer shot of the weld and throttle handle. You can see a peek of the shaft which will go to my new throttle cable setup thats in near the bar mount. I'm not going to polish the bars much more than this, the metal had some existing scratches, I like a little roughness to the look. I also had collars welded on the underside to hold the shaft


IMG_2634 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

"kin radical. Love it when people break the rules.

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

"Rules ? We don't need no stinkin rules "

~kop

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

I don't love the bars but I do understand them. Cool idea and nice execution. This is going to be a great build and I can't wait for more!

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

I bombed the motor with black paint. I know some people consider this a slacker trick, in my case I absolutely agree! restoring this motor could add a month to the build and we are already into our short seattle summer, so its "get it done" mode. It took me hours just to get it clean enough for paint already. We finally got a warm enough day to do it (we've had 2 record coldest springs in the NW, almost no days over 70)

Built a tripod stand to hold the motor so I could paint underneath too - all at once is the way to go. just 4x4 legs and a couple big nails in the top to raise it up. Worked great!


IMG_2687 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr


IMG_2690 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Plenty of clearance to get underneath:

IMG_2691 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

The finish came out nice - thats semi-gloss hi-temp paint from a rattle can. I'll polish the rocker covers and some other assorted bits to have some brightwork. REALLY glad to finally have this part done!

IMG_2696 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Well played on the nails sir. Looks to have worked quite well.

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Worked on bending the seat/cowl combo - this is a serious pain without any metalworking experience, but used some tricks learned here on DTT - it will be rough, I think definitely a "version 1", hopefully redo a slicker one down the road


IMG_2710 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

the side pieces are crazy - it flares out so its a compound curve - no wonder people find this easier in fiberglass - I think this one will work, now I have to do another to match it - phew


IMG_2713 by Mary Mack & Mark, on Flickr

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Nice work, but don't leave me hangin on how you are going to handle the throttle linkage.

Re: 76 XL250 "Cafuro"

Whereabouts are you in seattle? I'm desperately looking for someone with a bandsaw to help me make a single cut on my cafe seat ;D